Here are a few pictures of some of my harvests from mid-July through the end of August. Notably absent are tomatoes, despite having 12 (!) tomato plants. Thanks, rats and birds đ
A Medley of Summer Harvests
Category: Harvest
August Mini-Bouquet
First Tomatoes
Finally, my first vine-ripened tomatoes of the season! I already picked two blushing, green ones to ripen on the counter, but these two are the real deal. One Mountain Sunrise and one Caiman. These are the first two that I harvested after covering whatever the rats left on the vines with those wire mesh bags. It seems to be working. I hope to get at least a few handfuls from my 12 plants.
Getting the Garlic Ready for Storage
Last night, after three weeks of curing, I cleaned my garlic and prepped it for storage. For the hardnecks, I just clean off the dirt and the outermost papery skin, cut off the stems and root hairs and placed them in a ceramic crock to live in my pantry for the coming months. I will use those up first as hardnecks do not keep as well as softnecks.
I also braided the softneck garlic and added a few strawflowers for decoration. The braid now hangs in my pantry. As always, I saved the two largest heads of each type (4 heads total) as seed garlic. I will plant those cloves in early November for next yearâs harvest.
Pesto
First round of pesto in the freezer! Last night I processed the basil I had harvested the day before and made pesto. I still had garlic scapes in the fridge, and used a few of those plus pine nuts, olive oil and salt. To make the pesto more versatile and to be considerate of pesto lovers in my circle who cannot have dairy, I did not add cheese. Cheese can always be added later. I then froze the pesto in ice cube trays and transferred the (ten) frozen cubes to Ziplock bags this morning to freeze for the longer term.
Shallot Braids
I braided some of my shallots today, and added a few strawflowers from last yearâs garlic braid. This yearâs strawflowers are not quite ready yet. I am so excited to have them hanging in my pantry with the drying herbs.
First Cucumbers
First pickling cucumbers (they are big) plus rainbow chard, basil (from pruning the tips), and flowers.
More Harvesting â Garlic and First Zucchini
This morning, I harvested my garlic. The total haul: 18 Russian Red hardnecks and 17 Transylvanian softnecks. On November 8, I had planted 16 hardnecks (some of them split resulting in 18 bulbs) and 18 softnecks (meaning I only lost one over the winter). They will now spend a day or two on the porch airing out before I brush off the dirt and hang them to dry and cure in my hallway for about three weeks.
I also harvested my first Cocozelle zucchini (zucchino?). Looking forward to grilling it and the two eggplants I harvested yesterday. After grilling, I will add a tiny bit more olive oil and sprinkle a little chopped mint on the zucchini and chopped basil on the eggplant. Served with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, olives, prosciutto, crusty bread â perfect summer antipasti!
Garlic update (July 14): This morning, I cleaned the dirt off the garlic â careful to not take off any papery skin â and tied them in bundles of about 8 bulbs each. They now join the shallots in my airy back hallway to cure. It is fine if some dirt stays. It will all be removed after the garlic has been fully cured.
Eggplant
Today, I also harvested two Asian eggplants. This deserves a separate post and needs to be celebrated, as I have not had much luck with eggplants in my plot in the past. I did not grow this particular plant from seed but rather purchased it from Neighborhood Farms back in May. It did exceptionally well in my plot, and today, I harvested the first two eggplants.
Shallots
Today, I harvested my Roderique shallots, a French banana-shaped type. It is the first time I have a real crop, yay! I am so excited as I absolutely love shallots, and they supposedly store very well. Last year, I only harvested three bulbs total (the rabbits got the rest), but this time around it is 34. I had planted them on April 26, and they were ready for harvest as they had started to lean with the bulbs pushing out of the ground, and the foliage was starting to yellow.
I will now let them cure in the shade on my porch for the next two weeks before I prepare them for long time storage, either by braiding them or just cutting off the stems and storing the bulbs in the pantry.
I found three seed shallots from back in April. The have come a long way since đ
I cure my shallots on my south-facing back porch. It is shaded for part of the day by large trees, but there are a few hours of full sun in the afternoon. Last year, I devised a method to shade my garlic while curing â weighted-down umbrellas. It worked great, so here we go again.
UPDATE (July 12, 2026): I had to move the shallots inside a little earlier than planned. Ideally, I had wanted them to air out on the porch for another day, but the garlic was ready to be harvested, and I needed the space. So, I carefully brushed off much of the dirt this morning and hung them in 4 bundles of about eight each in my back hallway to cure. They will stay there for two weeks, and I will check on them regularly and move them around to ensure they dry out and cure evenly.
